igibson@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (Ian L. Gibson - Earth Sciences) (12/11/87)
This is a posting for a friend, please mail (not post) responses: I have seen the ads for Digitalk's Smalltalk V for the IBM PC. Has anyone used this system? What is the performance like? How useable is it on an AT? What type of equipment is needed to make the system usable? Any experiences with this product would be appreciated. P.S. We can't all afford Suns (yet).
bae@ati.tis.llnl.gov (Hwa Jin Bae) (12/12/87)
In article <4204@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> igibson@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (Ian Gibson) writes: >I have seen the ads for Digitalk's Smalltalk V for the IBM PC. >Has anyone used this system? >Any experiences with this product would be appreciated. By all means, go out and buy it! It is fantastic system. Very fast reponse time on my 10 Mhz 0 wait state AT clone. The Smalltalk/V comes with an implementation of Prolog (with smalltalk source!) which works within smalltalk environment. Prolog predicates can be sent to prolog object instance as messages....how's that for an idea? The manual contains very nice tutorial on smalltalk language itself - comparing smalltalk to pascal syntax... Hwa Jin Bae (415) 463-6865 *** Only I'm responsible for what I said here. *** Control Data Corporation bae@{ati, aftac}.tis.llnl.gov 4234 Hacienda Drive {ames,ihnp4,lll-crg}!lll-tis!hbae Pleasanton, CA 94566 "Don't follow leaders; read your parking meters."
ken@pdn.UUCP (Ken Auer) (12/15/87)
In article <4204@watdcsu.waterloo.edu>, igibson@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (Ian L. Gibson - Earth Sciences) writes: > I have seen the ads for Digitalk's Smalltalk V for the IBM PC. > Has anyone used this system? > > What is the performance like? How useable is it on an AT? What > type of equipment is needed to make the system usable? > > Any experiences with this product would be appreciated. To which bae@ati.tis.llnl.gov (Hwa Jin Bae) responds: >> By all means, go out and buy it! It is fantastic system. Very fast >> reponse time on my 10 Mhz 0 wait state AT clone. The Smalltalk/V >> comes with an implementation of Prolog (with smalltalk source!) >> which works within smalltalk environment. Prolog predicates can >> be sent to prolog object instance as messages....how's that for >> an idea? >> >> The manual contains very nice tutorial on smalltalk language itself - >> comparing smalltalk to pascal syntax... This, and similar questions, have appeared on the net several times. The Digitalk 'Smalltalk/V' is a very good product. In fact, I'll agree with Hwa Jin that it is a "fantastic system". If all you want is a "fantastic system" for a low price, I agree with his recommendation to go out and but it. Smalltalk/V performs very well on an AT and is syntactically the same (except it uses := instead of a left arrow) as Smalltalk-80. Some of its performance is due to the fact that it handles text in a much simpler manner than Smalltalk-80 does (which could be good or bad, depending on your point of view). Smalltalk/V also provides a lot of nifty things like Prolog in their package. I also understand Digitalk will have a Mac version and an 80386 version (which MAY get rid of a lot of annoying side effects of running in "real-mode" on an 80286 and having to deal with segmentation in the Intel world, although I'm not sure exactly what their platform is), both with awesome performance, in early '88. However, if you want "Real Smalltalk-80", Softsmarts Smalltalk-AT is the way to go. Its performance is not as good in certain areas (e.g. text-handling) due to the fact that it is real Smalltalk-80 with all of the power/functionality. I've also seen benchmarks which indicate its performance is better in some areas. It also costs a bit more due to their licensing agreements with XEROX (or ParcPlace, whichever actually owns Smalltalk-80 now). Smalltalk-AT supplies a more powerful development environment, in my opinion, especially when comparing the debugging capabilities. Before I start a holy war, let me simply state that there are many other differences between the two products. I'm sure each vendor can prove why it's better for you to buy their product. Its up to you to decide which is better for you -- I just wanted to give equal time to Softsmarts. Since they don't seem to advertise as much as Digitalk, their address is below: Softsmarts, Inc. 299 California Ave. Suite 205 Palo Alto, CA 94303 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ken Auer Paradyne Corporation {gatech,rutgers,attmail}!codas!pdn!ken Mail stop LF-207 Phone: (813) 530-8307 P.O. Box 2826 Largo, FL 34649-9981 "The views expressed above do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, which by no means makes them incorrect."
bae@ati.tis.llnl.gov (Hwa Jin Bae) (12/18/87)
The softsmars smalltalk-80 is indeed a REAL smalltalk-80 with
everything and full compatibility, I hear. However, I don't know
about the price they charge for the product. I think it's around a
thousand dollars.... If you want to just learn about smalltalk and
use it for custom applications, I think smalltalk/V is sufficient at
99 bucks (I got mine for 84 dollars form programmers connection). On
the other hand, if you want smalltalk-80 compatibility with all
available classes, you will want to buy the softsmarts system.
How's that?
Hwa Jin Bae
Control Data Corporation "Don't follow leaders; watch the parking meters."
4234 Hacienda Drive bae@{ati, aftac}.tis.llnl.gov (Internet)
Pleasanton, CA 94566 {ames,ihnp4,lll-crg}!lll-tis!bae, hbae@plseca.UUCP